Creating medieval fantasy worlds recreating one from history

Here are some tips I have for creating a fantasy medieval world or recreating one from history.

For starters, it is very simple, if you know what your doing. Before starting a creation/recreation, it is best if you do some research about daily lives and such of that time period, but it doesn’t require prior knowledge or a lot of research.

To create a fantasy world, follow these steps. This is probably the most complicated one.

1 The research
-This is so you can chose what period in the medieval times to recreate in your world. This is because they each have different styles, such as the clothes, speech, buildings, and behaviors.
-Look at pictures.
2 List the things you learned from your research that you want included within your world
-Do this to keep track of the desired things.
3 Plan the names and what the world should look like
-Make a map. This is so you can have a visualization of your world, so you would be prepared for your places and distances when you go to write.
4 Plan what individual places should look like
-Make drawings or notes so you can be prepared for what your places look like when you write about them.
-Remember to give them the feel of the time period you want.
5 Plan the speech, characters, and characters lives
-Draw or make notes of the kinds of clothes, speech and actions of your character’s daily lives from the period desired.
6 You are ready to write about your fantasy world!

To recreate a medieval world from history, follow these steps. This also applies to those wishing to do one based on a legend.

1 Think about what you want to write about
2 Research
-This is the most complicated part because you need so much. Go in depth to learn about your character’s time frame and their life. Research that time period’s speech, clothes and behaviors, as well as your character’s life, if you choose to do of a historical figure and not create your own.
-Look at pictures.
3 Write a biography of your character
-Write everything from birth to death.
-Make a genealogy chart.
-List your character’s behavior.
-List your character’s friends and encounters
4 Plan the styles of that time, the clothes, speech, lives, and characters.
-Make notes or draw pictures.
5 List the place associated with your character.
6 You are now ready to start writing about your recreated medieval world!

Nice basics!

One thing I'd like to add is, if you really want to create a good feel for your world, do a ton of research. This goes for fantasy or historical. And don't just research what you think you'll need— research everything. One thing I learned doing my own historical-based fantasy is you can never really know enough. If you just learn what you think you'll need, the world will feel half-baked because what you make up might not fit with the actual mechanics of the world. It could feel like a fusion of modern ideals with a historical setting, which tends not to sit well with readers who know about the time period.

Plus, doing research into everything is a great way to get rid of Writer's Block. If you don't know what could happen next, just turn to the world you created for ideas. My novel's secondary conflict is taken directly from the time period which the novel is set. I've richened the plot countless times because I discovered something new about the period I based the world off of.

Also, don't just limit yourself to Medieval settings! Fantasy can take place anywhere. Really. I have more novels set in a world based off Mughal India than I do in my urban fantasy or Medieval worlds. It can be just a bit harder to do the research, but if you head to a bookstore or library with a really extensive history section you can usually do well. The Internet can be a total killer if you attempt to find the information you need; rarely is it out there.

Weather is another important consideration when researching, as that will determine a lot more than you think. Living patterns, planing seasons, clothing, ect. Oftentimes the geography of the world will play a part in weather, and impacts the same thing. Research what causes weather patterns and how geography will affect it, in order to create a natural landscape for your world.

My process for research usually follows this:

1- Rough concept for world/plot. This gives me my research period, or countries to look up.

2- Research the building blocks of the culture (extensive list. You'll probably only start off researching a handful of these. I've starred [ * ] the ones I'd start with):

This article

3- Look at everything and start building/fleshing out plot from the knowns of the world. Alter or reuse systems to take into account magic, and alter it to suite what's needed for plot without loosing the customs I want to keep. By knowing the original customs and why they're in place, it's a lot easier to keep the essence of the world in tact and not make it look like a half-baked, psudomodern/Medieval fantasy world.

4- Write, researching as needed to flesh out what you didn't know you needed at the start. (It will happen)

Yes... it's a fair chunk of research. But when creating a fantasy world with any basis in history lots of details can and probably will be needed. Especially if you want any credibility with people who do know what they're talking about.

Also, as I mentioned earlier it's one of the best ways I know to get rid of writer's block. Start researching and you'll be amazed what you can work into the story and what sort of directions you can take. Reason why I suggest doing research before a lot of your plot's in place— you might wind up changing your plot as you discover historical details you want to work in but suddenly don't fit with your world. It also makes plot building a lot easier, when you know what you're working with (in my opinion, anyway)

Thanks for posting this!

~Rosey

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